The Rancher's Spittin' Image

The Rancher's Spittin' Image
Peggy Moreland

TEXAS BRIDES HIS WOMAN, HIS CHILDJesse Barrister was back - lean muscled, broad shouldered and fit to be tied. Seemed his former sweetheart Mandy McCloud had a child who was the rancher's spittin' image. Could the boy be a Barrister? And if so, would the long-ragin' feud between the Barristers and the McClouds finally come to an end? Jesse wasn't looking to make amends - all he wanted was to claim his son… and another night in Mandy's arms.But sharing a child with Mandy was a whole lot different from sharing a bed with her. And soon the hard-hearted cowboy had a hankering to wake up next to Mandy, morning after morning after morning… .TEXAS BRIDES: Come on down to the McCloud family ranch - 'cause there's no place like Texas for a wedding!

“Does Being Here Alone With Me Bother You?” (#u00d73025-6449-5b4a-9ed1-9182e870504e)Letter to Reader (#u3632ea53-6929-54ee-b362-02ce4fe6098b)Title Page (#ud6491665-8468-5683-b7a6-1e7d4d96f3e5)PEGGY MORELAND (#u953dcee4-4230-5de0-b8dd-f8e8eac166fc)Dedication (#u90565044-3d89-5f1d-bfb9-c3d821d12996)Prologue (#u5d7d1227-859d-5d75-92ff-347ec2fd184a)Chapter One (#u17f58b62-1d53-5f60-85da-5bbfdba7b1aa)Chapter Two (#u648a97ee-6c41-51bb-8d4e-2b7b1fc7c497)Chapter Three (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

“Does Being Here Alone With Me Bother You?”

Jesse said, a sardonic smile curving one corner of his sexy mouth.

“No,” Mandy lied. “Though I wondered why you chose this place for us to meet.”

“But this is where it all began, Mandy. This is where our son was conceived. It’s the perfect place to discuss his future.”

He nodded toward the center of the grassy, moonlit glen. “I’d wait for you right there while you slipped out of your father’s house to meet your half-breed lover.”

Tears filled Mandy’s eyes. Oh, please, Jesse, she cried silently. Don’t do this.

But Jesse wasn’t through with her yet. He took a step closer, hooked a finger in the strand of hair that shadowed her face and dropped his lips to her neck.

Heat curled through her. “What do you want from me?” she whispered.

“My son.”

Dear Reader,

Silhouette Desire is proud to launch three brand-new, emotional and romantic miniseries this month! We’ve got twin sisters switching places, sexy men who rise above their pasts and a ranching family marriying off their Texas daughters.

Along with our spectacular new miniseries, we’re bringing you Anne McAllister’s latest novel in her bestselling CODE OF THE WEST series, July’s MAN OF THE MONTH selection, The Cowboy Clashes a Wedding. Next, a shy, no-frills librarian leads a fairy-tale life when she masquerades as her twin sister in Barbara McMahon’s Cinderella Twin, book one of her IDENTICAL TWINS! duet. In Seducing the Proper Miss Miller by Anne Marie Winston, the town’s black sheep and the minister’s daughter cause a scandal with their sudden wedding.

Sexy Western author Peggy Moreland invites readers to get to know the McCloud sisters and the irresistible men who court them—don’t miss the first TEXAS BRIDES book, The Rancher’s Spittin‘ Image. And a millionaire bachelor discovers his secret heir in The Tycoon’s Son by talented author Shawna Delacorte. A gorgeous loner is keeping quiet about His Most Scandalous Secret in the first book in Susan Crosby’s THE LONE WOLVES miniseries.

So get to know the friends and families in Silhouette Desire’s hottest new miniseries—and watch for more of their love stories in months to come!

Regards.

Melissa Senate

Senior Editor

Silhouette Books

Please address questions and book requests to:

Silhouette Reader Service

U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

Peggy Moreland

The Rancher’s Spittin’ Image

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

PEGGY MORELAND

published her first romance with Silhouette in 1989. She’s a natural storyteller with a sense of humor that will tickle your fancy, and Peggy’s goal is to write a story that readers will remember long after the last page is turned. Winner of the 1992 National Reader’s Choice Award, and a 1994 RITA Award finalist, Peggy frequently appears on bestseller lists around the country. A native Texan, she and her family live in Round Rock, Texas.

To my Georgetown girlfriends, better known

as the WADY Birds: Kathy Craig, Cindy Davies,

Lali Ewan, Pam Fling, Susan Hoyt, Becky Kennedy and

Libby Wood. Thanks for welcoming me into the nest and

allowing me the opportunity to “fly” with you.

Prologue

Under the shadow of darkness and with only the moon’s silvery light to guide their movements, the young lovers rose from the rumpled blanket as one. Perspiration beaded their bodies in the sultry night air like an early morning dew, yet they clung to each other, replete but reluctant to let the other go.

They sighed and drew an arm’s length apart, looking deeply into each other’s eyes. Scents of crushed grass and wildflowers tangled with the headier scent of sex and filled their senses, making leaving that much more difficult.

Even though he was aware of the danger in lingering, Jesse dipped his head over Mandy’s again for one last kiss. “You need to go,” he whispered.

“I know,” she murmured. But the taste of him was wild and intoxicating and filled with enough of the forbidden that Mandy was reluctant to leave him. She splayed her fingers across the breadth of his chest and watched his eyes darken. The quickening of his heart beneath her palm brought a temptress smile to her swollen lips. “But maybe just a minute longer,” she suggested.

Her breath against his mouth was as tantalizingly sweet as the fingers that roamed his chest. Jesse caught her hands in his and drew them to his lips, wanting her again, as desperately as he had only moments before, but knowing they’d already stayed too long. “It’s too chancy, Mandy,” he warned. “At any moment someone might find you gone and come looking for you. If they found us—”

Mandy quickly pressed her lips to his, silencing him, not wanting to hear the dangers of their secret meetings voiced aloud. “They won’t,” she promised and dipped quickly to pick up her panties and bra. With shaking fingers she quickly donned them.

On a sigh, Jesse followed her lead, pulling on first his jeans, then his shirt, then dropping down on the blanket to tug on his socks and boots. But his eyes never left Mandy, watching as she frantically pushed buttons through holes in her blouse and shimmied into her jeans.

“Mandy,” he said, his slight Mexican accent caressing each syllable of her name as he reached for her hand. “My heart aches at the thought of leaving you.”

The poetry in him never ceased to amaze her and her blood warmed and thickened with her love for him. With a quivering smile, she threaded her fingers through his and braced herself as he used her weight to pull himself to his feet. Stepping nearer, she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek against his chest.

“I—I’ll miss you,” she whispered brokenly, the lump in her throat making voicing the words difficult.

“No more than I’ll miss you,” he returned, squeezing her tightly against him. “When can we meet again?”

She lifted her face to his, wanting to take with her the memory of his handsome face, the love that glowed so vibrantly in his dark eyes. “Saturday. Daddy is going to San Antonio to a sale and won’t be back until Sunday, late.”

His brow furrowed. “But how will you slip away unnoticed?”

In the moonlight, her smile radiated confidence. “Don’t worry. I’ll think of a way.”